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Recent Advances in Tunable Metasurfaces: Materials, Design and Applications

Metasurfaces, a two-dimensional (2D) form of metamaterials constituted by planar meta-atoms, exhibit exotic abilities to freely tailor electromagnetic (EM) waves. Over the past decade, tunable metasurfaces have come to the frontier in the field of nanophotonics, with tremendous effort focused on developing and integrating various active materials into metasurfaces. As a result, tunable/reconfigurable metasurfaces with multi-functionalities triggered by various external stimuli have been successfully demonstrated, openings a new avenue to dynamically manipulate and control EM waves for photonic applications in demand. In this review, we first brief the progress of tunable metasurfaces development in the last decade and highlight representative works from the perspectives of active materials development, design methodologies and application-driven exploration. Then, we elaborate on the active tuning mechanisms and relevant active materials. Next, we discuss recent achievements in theory as well as machine learning (ML) assisted design methodologies to sustain the development of this field. After that, we summarize and describe typical application areas of the tunable metasurfaces. We conclude this review by analyzing existing challenges and presenting our perspectives on future directions and opportunities in this vibrant and fast-developing field.